Sustainability benefits of transitioning from current diets to plant-based alternatives or whole-food diets in Sweden.

ABSTRACT: Plant-based alternatives (PBAs) are increasingly becoming part of diets. Here, we investigate the environmental, nutritional, and economic implications of replacing animal-source foods (ASFs) with PBAs or whole foods (WFs) in the Swedish diet. Utilising two functional units (mass and energy), we model vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian scenarios, each based on PBAs or WFs. Our results demonstrate that PBA-rich diets substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions (30-52%), land use (20-45%), and freshwater use (14-27%), with the vegan diet showing the highest reduction potential. We observe comparable environmental benefits when ASFs are replaced with WFs, underscoring the need to reduce ASF consumption. PBA scenarios meet most Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, except for vitamin B12, vitami

SUBMITTER: Bunge AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10831109 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature